Participants at the 2011 Early Career workshop opening reception. Photo by Carol Ormand.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Check in to the hotel (the Williamsburg Hospitality House ) at any time (your room might not be ready until 3:00 pm). Registration for the workshop will be in the William and Mary Parlor of the Hospitality House from 3:00-5:00; workshop registration for later arrivals will be at the Sadler Center during the reception, dinner, or evening program.

This session will focus on examples that build quantitative skills of students in introductory courses (including large ones). We will use a Mauna Loa CO2 example that helps students with tasks such as constructing best fit lines, calculating slope, and making predictions about future values. We will also look at examples that build other quantitative skills, such as testing the reasonableness of quantitative answers, and that help students overcome math phobia.

We will discuss the benefits and challenges of using interactive activities in a lecture class, as well as several other ways to engage students, such as case studies, demonstrations, and connecting the topics to students' lives. We will demonstrate some short activities that actively engage a diverse and potentially unmotivated student group and that can easily be incorporated into lecture classes. And we will spend some time brainstorming about ways to incorporate these strategies in your own classroom.

There are a number of techniques that can help involve students in the learning process in a constructive fashion. These include think-pair-share, informal groups, jigsaws, and gallery walk. In this session we will model one of these methods and explore the potential for some of the others in a range of classroom settings.

Integrating research into the courses we teach can help bridge the gap between our teaching and our research, and offer students a glimpse into what we do as scientists. In this session, we will explore strategies for integrating different components of research into courses. We will also explore how teaching can broaden the impact of our research.

Seminar courses should be exciting and interactive, yet they are too often just the opposite. This session will model some ways to keep all participants focused and involved in the discussions.To benefit from this session, you should come prepared by reading the paper that we will discuss: Algeo, T.J. and Twitchett, R.J., 2010, Early Triassic sediment fluxes due to elevated weathering rates and their biological consequences. Geology, v. 38, no. 11, p. 1023-1026.

We will discuss and practice using two research-supported techniques to engage students: Lecture Tutorials and ConcepTests (which can be implemented with or without clickers). Both techniques are easy to use in classes of any size.

Participants at the 2011 Early Career workshop predict the outcome of a lecture demonstration. Photo by Carol Ormand.

2:40-4:10 Designing Class Activities and Assignments: Concurrent Sessions. Sharing and reviewing teaching activities and assignments and assessment strategies is a great way to grow and learn as an educator.

Developing Assessment Strategies for Your Classes. During this session you will review various techniques for robust assessment of student learning and apply one or more of them to your own class activities or assignments - Richard Yuretich and Cindy Shellito- Tidewater A

Reviewing One of Your Class Activities or Assignments. During this session you will share and receive feedback on one of your own class activities or assignments that you will submit prior to the workshop and will review activities or assignments submitted by others - Heather Macdonald and other leaders- Tidewater B

We will discuss the educational opportunities that exist outside the college setting, ways to reach out to those opportunities, and the benefits of doing so. These opportunities include working with K-12 teachers, lectures for the public, local science workshops, local/state/national park programs, television, newspapers, radio, museums, teaching workshops (local/state/national, etc.), and research programs (where you're not the PI).

Conducting research on the process of learning geoscience can be illuminating and rewarding, leading to improvements in geoscience teaching. Yet most of us are trained in geoscience research, rather than educational research practices. This session will explore how to begin a program of educational research, focusing on the similarities to and differences from geoscience research.

Conducting research with undergraduate students is quite different than doing so with graduate students, and the potential for success is substantial. In this session we: (1) present questions to consider asking yourself and your students; (2) summarize models for designing viable undergraduate projects; and (3) discuss specific strategies for successfully managing your undergraduate collaborations.

This session will discuss strategies to get your lab producing high quality measurements for your research program and will include obtaining or accessing necessary equipment as a topic. Additional specific topics will follow participant interests.

Starting New Research Projects and Collaborations - James Farquhar, Michael Wysession, and Richard Yuretich, Tidewater B (Sessions 1 and 2)

You have finished your dissertation or post-doctoral projects and you want to use the resources at your current institution to grow in new directions. This session will focus on issues involved with starting and funding new research projects that are in your own field or are broadening the scope of your research. We will discuss the complex nature of strategies for succeeding and establishing new projects (including interdisciplinary projects), and how matters like paying close attention to what we can actually accomplish and recognizing requirements and limits on reinventing ourselves and our research methods can be used to advantage.

11:00-11:50 Strategies for Research and Scholarship: Concurrent Sessions. Participants will attend a session from the list above.

Participants at the 2011 Early Career workshop. Photo by Carol Ormand.

Early in your career, service is perhaps less talked about than the other pillars of academia, teaching and research. It might be argued that this facet of your career is flexible and more readily fine tuned to suit your interests. In this session we will consider strategies for finding service opportunities and for determining how they will be assessed as your career moves forward.

We often hear talk of the pressure to publish. That characterization of this vital aspect of our career does not acknowledge that we are drawn to our work by curiosity about the world and find great satisfaction from completing a research project and seeing the work published. Nevertheless, a laundry list of obstacles, which include a myriad of other 'urgent' obligations, limited time to devote to writing, feelings that our work is inadequate or incomplete, and negative reviewer responses, can add frustration to writing and contribute to the pressure mentioned above. In this session, we will discuss several practical strategies for preparing manuscripts and seeing them through review and into print.

Misconceptions are difficult to change, often preventing students from understanding accurate geologic explanations. We will explore common misconceptions in fundamental geologic topics and describe ways to uncover misconceptions in your students. We will discuss learning barriers that cause misconceptions as well as ways to reduce them.

Whether one admits it or not, one's own human nature and the human nature of one's colleagues can become a worst enemy or a best ally. This session will be an open discussion of how issues such as jealousy, opportunity, following through and completing tasks, and follow up afterward can shape our careers and determine how we feel about ourselves and live our lives inside and outside the academic setting, seeking to address questions about how much is enough and when is it too much.

Many colleges and departments, with diverse personalities, complex group dynamics, effective leadership distinct from positional leadership, generation gaps, and communication gaps, seem to be difficult places to navigate. This session will focus on developing your awareness of, and skill set for, citizenship and navigating politics in academic settings. We'll also discuss how to say "No" safely.

Evaluating writing takes time and students often think the process is totally subjective. We will discuss specific ways to give students useful feedback without being overwhelmed with work by sequencing assignments to build on student skills and using a rubric that sets students up for success and minimizes the time it takes to grade. Participants will be given handouts for teaching and evaluating writing.

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Liz Ritchie

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Carol Ormand and Karen Kortz

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Jon Lewis

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Richard Yuretich

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Jon Lewis

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Liz Ritchie

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Karen Kortz

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Randy Richardson

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Liz Ritchie and Cindy Shellito

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